Are all shampoos basically the same?

Some shampoos are better for my hair than others. I remember Johnson’s, it got my hair tangled into a myriad of knots…whereas other shampoos got my hair reasonably presentable to other people.

I use shampoo for shampoo and body wash.

Same junk.

:-)

Yes. And store and discount brands are identical to the name brands.

I have thick, long, curly hair that becomes a mess when washed with a clarifying shampoo. I need to leave some natural oil or add additional moisturizer in my hair or I will end up with a sore head from brushing out the mess.

Not all shampoos are the same.

That said, since shampoo is quickly rinsed out… it is actually more important to invest in good conditioner that will actually be absorbed into your hair to some extent than pay for expensive shampoo.

I buy store brand shampoo for my hair type sometimes but sometimes get burned. I try to get a slightly better conditioner I’m cheap and leave it in for a couple of minutes before I rinse it out.

My 13 year old uses tea tree shampoo or he’ll have a flakey mess.

It’s weird, but at my supermarket the ‘organic’ shampoos are the cheapest ones. I’m not certain that what I use is genuine organic, but it has no SLS, SLES, ALS or ALES in it. It is generally agreed that those chemicals may be bad for the health of one’s hair.

There are expensive shampoos that really do deliver wonderful results as far as volume, colour, strength, etc. go. I couldn’t begin to tell you how they work though, but some brands are certainly superior. I just buy the cheap organic stuff because there are other things to spend my money on and because it works for me.

Some shampoo is also medicated for dandruff or itchy scalps or contain an extra ingredient or two to help get overly stubborn particulate matter out of the hair that doesn’t normally come out with a standard shampoo. Also, can leave a particular sheen to the hair, though I admit I always thought that was mostly a function of conditioner.

My wife tells me she can see the difference between when I use one shampoo or another, and for the most part, if I look I guess I can to (or maybe I just subconsciously know it’s better to agree with her on this one).

Lots of times people pay for the scent as well. I’ve had several girlfriends that have used two shampoos one for the result they want then one for the scent that they wash out just before stepping out of the shower.

I’ve always thought a lot of it just has to do with marketing, but enough people seem to think there’s a difference to say that’s it’s not all simply that.

No. Some are cheaper.

Not at all. Most of the ones in stores have sulfates and other things in them. The good ones don’t. There are other differences, but that’s probably the most important.

I heard on the ‘Today’ show from an expert chemist that one of the ingredients in shampoo that makes it lather more is a chemical that could be used to clean your garage floor of stains…I forget what the chemical was, of course, but now I always think of that when I’m lathering my hair up…

BTW – My hair gets the same clean with the $.99 Suave and the $12.50 bottle of whatever my daughter talked me into buying at the salon.

I’ll rephrase my answer:

The vast majority of major brands of shampoo are very similar. The store and generic brands that mimic the name brands are pretty much chemically identical to the name brands they mimic. There’s no reason other than brand recognition and marketing to buy Pantene, for example, over the much cheaper store brand with a bottle that looks a lot like Pantene’s bottle.

In my experience, some shampoos really are better than others. It doesn’t always correlate with price though.
My color lasts longer when I use Aveda’s Color Conserve versus another company’s shampoo for colored hair or one not specifically for colored hair. I find Suave makes my hair feel weighed down, where as Treseme or Pantene doesn’t.

When my sister was in beauty school she said you didn’t really have to buy expensive shampoo, that its all the same. You need shampoo for dandruff or dry hair or whatever, but you could buy cheap. She said what was more important is the conditioner. She said that store conditioner has fiberglass in it that is horrible for your hair. Apparently you should always buy conditioner from a salon.

All shampoos contain sodium lauryl sulphate, which is a surfactant used in toothpaste, shaving foam and shampoo. This is used to form a lather when you wash your hair. It can also be used (in a more concentrated form) as a degreaser for floors etc.

I only know this becasue my daughter has eczema and she was allergic to most shampoos, and so I researched shampoos online. I now use Polytar for her, and she can tolerate this shampoo much better than the type with a high concentrate of sodium lauryl sulphate.